Bulbous Shapes. Duran LaNtink AW24

April 1, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

There’s no way you haven’t seen oneof those bulbous denim shorts or red dresses in one of the latest editorials (or magazine covers). Stylists went crazy for Duran Lantink‘s spring-summer 2024 collection, being his big break-through moment. Garments with built up shoulders and hips with padding, torsos exaggerated with stretchy body stockings: these extreme proportions make for great photos, and are just really fun to play around with. For his autumn-winter 2024 collection, the Dutch designer is on a similar wave of thought (big shapes and sustainable approach to garment-making) but with hints of commercial sensibility. Instead of delving into such summery essentials as bathing suits and lifesavers, he trained his attention on wintery gear like ski sweaters, long johns, and cozy wool socks, complemented by some power tailoring. “We’re really trying to figure out new ways of presenting clothes, creating new shapes and forming a new identity,” he said. Using padding, he exaggerated the shoulders on both a sweater dress and a single-breasted jacket by bringing them forward, and thickened the chest and back on cropped jackets in leather or upcycled puffer nylons. The effect is somewhat sexy. Unsurprisingly, these shapes aren’t easy to achieve. “They’re very labor intensive,” Lantink said “but I’m kind of a romantic thinker in that way. From my perspective, I don’t think that it’s something only conceptual.” Still, he has to think about commerciality, so on smaller pieces like sweater vests and button-downs he inserted a good inch or inch-and-a-half of foam between two layers of fabric, sometimes slicing them horizontally or diagonally to show off their unusual thickness. Damn, this year’s LVMH Prize season is really intense: Duran is in the game along with Elena Velez, Niccolo Pasqualetti, Vautrait, Marie Adam-Leenaerdt and other talents.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Passage Of Time. Vautrait AW24

March 24, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

One of the most intriguing runway debuts of the season belonged to Vautrait, the Paris-based brand established in 2021 by Yonathan Carmel. Every label today tries to join the conversation around tailoring, but most of these efforts end up looking pretty much the same. Vautrait however is different. For a young brand, it’s astounding how mature its designs are – just take a look at Carmel’s autumn-winter 2024 show to get what I mean. Take the statuesque wool jacket with a nonchalantly notched label. Or the oversized trench coat with cognac leather, vest-like insert with big, utilitarian pockets. Or the black coat with broad shoulders and faux-fur-trimmed collar and cuffs (from afar it looks like crow feathers). These pieces say: we’re classics. Carmel champions traditional crafts as the key to sustainable creations that shape and accompany the body over the course of its life. According to the designer, the evolution of the body echoes the passage of time, developing and revealing new qualities and properties, just like vintage wine transcends the grapes its contains. Embracing the signs of age thus emboldens Vautrait’s designs that shun a system and its unattainable standards, so focused on establishing temporary and disposable stuff. Yonathan is one of this year’s LVMH Prize semi-finalists. The competition in this edition is especially tough, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Men’s – Calm Men. Wales Bonner SS17

June 16, 2016 | Design & Culture by Ed

Grace Wales Bonner, 25, the London-based menswear designer, has been announced as LVMH Prize 2016 winner (along Vejas Kruszewski, who won the second prize), gaining the a major back-up for her eponymous brand. But in fact that’s just one of the reasons I’m writing about her today. The latter is her latest, break-through outing during London Fashion Week, which is pure poetry. When creating her label, Bonner’s main aim was to break the stereotype of black male fashion as aggressive, popularly seen in posture of hip-hop sweatpants and rapper’s gold chains. Wales Bonner’s work focuses on black male sexuality, unconventional masculine identity, and mainly afro-American cultural experience.

With a background of growing up in South East London and having a Jamaican dad, Grace looks forward to show the masses a new diversity in fashion, but from a totally different perspective – it’s much calmer, gentler, not as bold as in Stella Jean‘s way. This season, she was inspired particularly by Ethiopia’s emperor from the 30s, Haile Selassie, who was famous for blurring the African rituals with his own, military coronations and “style”. Tailoring, the season’s ultimate highlight, was embellished with crystals, all in traditional crotchet and meticulous embroidery. Her decorated, slightly dandy-ish men are accompanied by female models, who wear similarly androgynous pieces – gender fluidity is nothing new to us in London. But according to Wales Bonner’s vision, male beauty becomes something much more unexpected, yet highly signature. Her debut runway show was a bomb – and with LVMH’s funds, Grace will surely keep doing her thing.